Settle something for me...390 vs 400.

[rusty ol ranger]

I got a buddy that thinks the 390 is the best thing since sliced bread.

I think the 400 is the better overall engine.

Disclosure...ive never really messed with FEs beyond driving a couple. They were fine but not really knock your socks off.

The 400s i have had seemed to have torque for days and a cooling system that actually worked.

So....whats your guys take?

 

[Blmpkn]

140

 

[rusty ol ranger]

140

Please......we are talking engines...not noisemakers

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

300… with a cross-flow head.

 

[Curious Hound]

140

Is that on your weedeater?

 

[Shran]

FE's are really heavy... 1950's technology. 351M/400's are just neutered by smog controls and lack of significant aftermarket support and they never came with cool hot rod parts out of the box like FE's did. Other Ford engines from the era suffer from the same stuff too. 385 family... heavy...maybe smog parts...maybe pretty cool. SBF, light but not a ton of power stock.

I drove a few FE powered trucks back in the day and they were no hot rods but plenty reliable. I have no preference towards any of them from about 67 on, I think if I was building a truck I would just use whatever was in it unless there was nothing, and in that case it would be a 351W in a half ton or any of the others in a 250/350. I'd have a very hard time building a stock 302, 352, 351M, 360...etc... seems like kind of a waste when you can find more bigger & more better parts for a build.

For a 66 or older build I think a 351W or inline 6 would be my go-to's if I was starting with nothing. I like inline 6's in general but they just seem right at home in those old trucks and less so in newer ones.

 

[don4331]

I got a buddy that thinks the 390 is the best thing since sliced bread.

I think the 400 is the better overall engine.

Disclosure...ive never really messed with FEs beyond driving a couple. They were fine but not really knock your socks off.

The 400s i have had seemed to have torque for days and a cooling system that actually worked.

So....whats your guys take?

Reminiscing about my misspent youth here:

I would have said the Y-block was 50's tech with the FE being 60's and the 400 being a 70's smog motor.

The '71 400 wasn't bad: limited by only being produced with 2 bbl carb, but with 9.0:1 compression, made decent torque with that 4" stroke. By '75, they reduced the compression to 8.0:1, saddled it with catalytic converters = unleaded 87 (not even low octane leaded aka bronze) and with only 145hp, it was...ordinary. With no hot rod parts (not even a 4bbl intake), a high school student saw no potential.

Now, the end of the line 390s, specifically those in trucks, were pretty much the same: 410 pistons which were 0.100" short to drop compression ratio and 2 bbls carbs.

But, the 390 in grandma's '68 clear mountain car, aka Mercury Montcalm, was the exact same block, and it came with decent cam/compression and carb (4 bbl). OK, it liked red aka premium leaded, but it made power! Over double what the 400 was making.

So, my view on the 390 vs 400 is very much tilted in favour of the FE.

And we just build a real fire breathing 416 FE for my buddy's '68 Mustang.

 

[Rick W]

You guys have probably forgotten more about these engines than I will ever know, you know way more than I do, but you know I have a story for everything!

Late 2,000s & early 2,010s I had a 1973 F350 tow truck 79 grille w pusher bumper & Holmes pto driven mechanical wrecker boom with a rear hydraulic wheel lift. A guy who had a wrecker company up in Detroit, it was his first wrecker, and after he wore it out, he rebuilt it, wore it out again, and then he rebuilt it, but customized it like we might do a muscle car. It was the company mascot until he passed away. When I got it, it was worn out again. We were screwing around drinking and playing cards and bidding on eBay, I bid $2100 as a joke - positive I would be out bid - and I won the damn thing. So I drove up in a sports car, hooked the sports car on the back and drove it back to Atlanta. The thing was ugly, but it ran like the top.

And let me digress another moment and say that that’s one of two times I ever towed anything with it. It’s like the Road Ranger, just a big toy, except the wrecker was completely functional.

He had chromed it up and he put in a stripped/built Mercury 390. I don’t know the year of the engine, but there was no concept of pollution control on this thing. It got under 10 miles a gallon on premium, but it was a stump puller more than anything I’ve ever seen. It easily went 70 towing the sports car down from Detroit, but mostly it was just solid incredible torque. When my buddies were building Camaros and Mustangs, I got this thing, and I repainted it and cleaned it up, and it pissed them all off because it got more attention than their show cars at car shows. That’s just because nobody in my circles was crazy enough to ever own anything like that.

But that engine was magical. That F350 was much more heavy duty than the F350s they make today, and the wrecker bed was made out of plate steel, and it and the Holmes boom weighed a ton and a half. I’d start out in the granny gear, and it was a smooth as those Lincoln Towncars, nothing but power.

I can’t compare to a 400 since I’ve never had one. But that mercury 390 in that truck had three or four times the power of the 460 in my Mark V. But that Mark is OEM choked down by the pollution stuff. Low on my list is to have it stripped down and beefed up a little bit, but I’ll probably never make it.

I had a blast with that truck, but like many of my toys over the years, a guy down the road just had to have it and the price got right. They’re knocking on my door for that Mark V right now, but I’m not ready to sell.

For what it’s worth…